National Republican., 1887-04-21
Standards of SIP eeCh.

A writer whose pen drops pearls on
every subject Of human thought says that
England is no longer the arbiter Of the En-.
glish language, "for more people speak It in
this country than in all Great Britain" Fur
ther on the sage strengthens his position
with the statement that 'there are more
scholars In the United States than In Great
Britain, and In the ears Of the citizens of
republic authority rhymes with 'ma-
jority.'n Rhyme ia pretty good thing in
Its way-at least good rhyme--but 1t is
popularly used as the antithesis of ''rea-
son." so that there are few expressions more
clearly understood than the phrase, ,"There's
more truth than poetry in it," poetry,
Of course, being taken as the rough equiv.
alent Of rhyme. Therefore, although
"authority" condescenis to jingle with
'maiorlty" 1t does not necessarily follow
that English is more correctly spoken in
any one place than in any other.
But 1t is worth little trouble to examine
the value of mere numbers In establish
ing standards Of speech. Local custom,
which means the majority of certain
limited districts, governs local speech, and,
with reference to that locality, certain
phrases, modes of emphasis, pronuncia-
tion, and accent are correct-in that they
rarely offend anybody. Larger districts,
with dense city populations, have different
standards, until we arrive at what Mr..
Davidge calls "the court of country" or,
more accurately, the seat Of government,
with all the accumulation of educated
persons, which that term implies.
AS the most densely populated capital
city OF the world let us take London.
With reference to standards OF speech
custom still prevails and is supreme
arbiter in London. But what custom 7
What special section Of London so.
ciety, II any, lays down the laws on this
subject? Does the majority dictate what
shall be the standard of speech? Far from
it. OF the five million inhabitants OF Lon.
don there are probably not half million
who influence the established rules of cor.
rectly spoken language. The law courts
the pulpit, the theater, universities, public
schools, the legislature, and, within certain
narrow limits, the royal court directly az
| fecttbe use Of words. There are unwrit
tiop, and generally prevalent in what Is
known as 'good society" In London, which
practically dictate the meaning, accent,
and pronunciation Of words.
II is no crime TO have provincial accent
or pronunciation, and provided there is no
afTectation or mincing pretense, there is no
city in which a sturdy provincial accent,
associated with robust character, passes
lLuster so successfully as In the highest
circles of London society. Let us take an
instance Of this. An American visitor to
the houses of parliament will scarcely be
| surprised al anything more than at the dif-
ferent dialects and accents brought on
parade In the course OF any important de-
bate. few years ago 1t was considered
| great fun to listen to discussion between
Sir John Coleridge, the English attorney
general, and Mr.. Dowse, (now chief baron)
the Irish law officer. Coleridge's style was
the perfection Of what is considered we'll
bred and highly-cultlvated English
speech, though cynics might have
called 1t flnnicklng. Dowse is "very''
north Of Ireland man, who had
been rebel in 1S4S with Smith O'Brien,
with an Irshscotch brogue at least as
broad as to-day and tomorrow. In one
great debate Dowse proved better lawyer
and better classical scholar than Cole,
ridge, and while they battered at each other
in foreign or deiunct tongues the laugh was
all against the EnglIshman. When 1t came to
pure English the effect was otherwise. A
southern Irishman, with a Cork accent and
the usual pronunciation, then spoke with